Ichigo Uzumaki
by Zanka no Tachi 31
Summary: Pending thoughts of continuation...maybe
1. Chapter 1

It was cold, but that wasn't too bad the worst part was that it was raining. Ichigo hated the rain. None more so than today. Today Ichigo died or rather is dieing. He faced of with Kugo Ginjo and he was almost deprived of the power he sought to protect but Uryuu was there and stopped Kugo from taking it but that didn't stop him from killing him as the life slowly left his eyes.

"_Why does it have to end like this, powerless to protect my friends and about to die in the rain, the same way Mum died. It can't get much worse than this, can it."_

* * *

_Pant, pant._ "_I can't keep this up for…where's Ichigo? Ichigo can't have died yet, no he's still alive, on the brink of death but still alive"_ Uryuu said to himself. "_Come on Urahara you could have at least come already."_

"Are you getting distracted?" Kugo said snapping Uryuu from his thoughts. "I though Tsukishima would be enough to handle you but I was wrong, now I must kill you so I can absorb Kurosaki's power before he dies" Kugo was suddenly enveloped in a wash of purple reishi and his power sky rocketed.

The first thing that happened when it cleared was Kugo lunging at Uryuu swinging his giant sword at him. Uryuu went on the defensive and used hirenkyaku to dodge Kugo, but it wasn't enough as he was cut across his arm and blood started to flow out of the wound. Uryuu looked down at the wound and growled to himself a little at the mistke of underestimating the enemy. Just where was everyone.

"_Guess I won't be able to hold back" _Uryuu thought. Uryuu's pendant began to let of a slight blue glow. The reishi in the surrounding air was absorbed by Uryuu. Instantly a white cloth like reishi substance began to cover Uryuu.

"What are you doing Uryuu? You know you can't save Kurosaki" Kugo laughed evilly "just give up already if you don't someone will notice and get in my way" Kugo continued throwing his arm out to the side gesturing to what may be his loss. Kugo lunged at Uryuu once more whom just disappeared and reappeared behind Kugo ready to fire an arrow at his back. Uryuu was surprised however when Kugo managed to turn around just in time to block the arrow from piercing his back.

Not too far in the distance a senkaimon could be felt opening alerting the two to the presence of shinigami from soul society coming to interfere with their battle. As the gate opened several captains and a few lieutenants could be seen stepping out. These captains consisted of Byakuya, Zaraki and Toshiro.

"What are they all doing here" Kugo said gripping his head in frustration slowly floating down to the roof top of the house that was being destroyed in their fight. "_I can't take Kurosaki's power like this…well if I can't have him no one can"_ Kugo thought as he gained an evil grin on his face and looked up towards the captains and Uryuu. "What now will I do? You ask yourselves this question" Kugo said holding both his arms up in the air, sword held high as well. "I will do this" Kugo said flashing over to Ichigo in a burst of green gripping him by his shirt making the shinigami move their hands to their swords and begin to unsheathe them in anticipation to what Kugo may do. Kill him? No that wasn't his objective because Ichigo would go straight to soul society, so what?

"Ichigo!" Renji and Rukia cried out at seeing their friend. They were silenced by Byakuya whom had a slightly solemn look on his face at seeing both Ichigo and the two lieutenants like this.

"What do you plan to do with him?" Toshiro said narrowing his eyes slightly "do you plan to take him with you because he was a substitute soul reaper just like you?" Toshiro said making Uryuu's eyes widen at the statement and look at the captain.

"No I won't be taking him with me at this point in time," Kugo said raising his sword at the shinigami "I…will be making sure that no one can have him not even you…he" Kugo said gesturing to Ichigo in his grasp "will be lost to oblivion not even your prestigious scientist will be able to help him once I'm done"

"Then we won't let you" Toshiro said drawing his sword completely holding it out in front of him in a battle ready stance.

"I'm afraid it's a little too late for that, you see," Kugo said pausing for a moment "you lost the moment I picked up Kurosaki" Kugo continued confusing the shinigami in front of him. "Just watch as you and I lose a precious source of power"

As soon as Kugo finished his speech the sword he held pointed at the shinigami in the sky swept downward carving open the air in front of him like fabric forming a garganta making the several shinigami eyes widen at the action in realisation of what he was about to do.

"_Without a set destination Ichigo will be lost in the void forever and in his current state any mere fluctuation in the void would tear him into pieces causing him to die and be lost forever" _Uryuu and the shinigami thought and realised.

However everyone was too late as Ichigo's form sunk into the void never to return causing a crestfallen look to appear on the shinigami and Uryuu's faces. However that was slowly replaced by anger and Uryuu lashed out the instant he looked back up to Kugo who had a smug look on his face at what he just did and punched him in the face so hard he went through to the bottom floor of the house

"Now no one wins," Kugo said "we were all weak in the first place, we depended on him to stand on our own two feet," Kugo began to shout at them as he rose back out to the roof of the house looking at all of them intently. "Now look at yourselves, you finally have the courage to attack once a dear friend has left you, how pathetic, you were all going to kill him anyway like what you want to do with me, so I don't see the difference, obsticles must be removed after all and Kurosaki was just an obstacle to be removed especially since once he dies he won't remember a damn thing when he gets to the Rukongai."

Byakuya and Kenpachi just looked at Kugo coldly before Byakuya drew his sword and said Kugo's death sentence "Bankai, Zenbonzakura Kageoshi." With that said dozens of giant pillars of swords rose out of the ground before each broke apart and surrounded Kugo who was surprised that the captain would go all out from the very beginning. "Don't even bother trying to escape fool, that kido I placed on you will stop you from escaping the inevitable" Byakuya said pointing at the six glowing bars that now surrounded Kugo's waste as he struggled to escape. Without an escape in mind and death slowly closing in on him Kugo gave up.

"_Huh…should have known it would come to this_" Kugo thought to himself as he was finally swallowed up in a giant mass of pink blades that cascaded down upon him and ripped through his flesh killing him almost instantaneously but not without a cry of pain that was silenced by his death.

"Let's go Toshiro, Zaraki…and lieutenants" Byakuya said looking over to Renji and Rukia who stood there with a look of sadness upon their faces, one that would surely break down into tears the moment they were alone.

* * *

(Urahara Shouten)

"So that's what happened Uryuu, eh" Urahara said listening to Uryuu's explanation of what happened to Ichigo. "Well I can confirm to you what Kugo said, Ichigo…will not be coming back" Urahara said trying to hold himself back from breaking down just like Uryuu was at this very moment. "Ichigo's body will break down into reitsu and be lost forever, however he might be reborn in another world, that is a fact that cannot be confirmed as to the reason that no one has ever come back once a similar occurance has happened, they have all been assumed to be dead" Urahara continued.

Ichigo and Uryuu may have gotten on each others nerves in the past but they were good friends whether they knew it or not and that made it all the more difficult for Uryuu and it would definitely hit hard on the others once they recovered from Tsukishima's fullbring.

"For now all I can say is that we will never see him again and that I need to go talk to Isshin to tell him of the news, you may go home now Uryuu-san" Urahara said getting a slight nod from Uryuu. He had a blank look on his face, a sign of a slight depression already sinking in.

* * *

(Kurosaki clinic)

"That's alright I understand Keisuke, you can leave now" Isshin said after having listened to Urahara. How was he going to tell the girls about Ichigo, they already knew more or less about the fact that Ichigo was once involved in the affairs of shinigami. Ichigo had already come close to the point of dying in front of his family multiple times and it had caused them to become a wreck, now he had to tell them that Ichigo actually had died this time and they would never see him again.

* * *

(Inside the void)

"_Uh…where am I? Am I dead? Probably… but shouldn't I be in Heuco Mundo or the Rukongai then?"_ Ichigo said to himself in his thoughts. And then he remembered catching a glimpse of being thrown headfirst into a void that looked all too familiar. "_A garganta then, so if I've been falling for a while I won't find my way back out of here…"_ Ichigo's thoughts stopped when he saw a blue glistening trail flowing out in front of him. His eyes followed it to it's source and saw his left arm breaking down into tiny bits of reistu. "_So I'm gonna die alone huh…not the best of things but oh well people die eventually…and I wasn't able to protect my friends either"_

"_Don't worry kingy ya still got me_" a voice in Ichigo's head spoke.

"_So your back huh_" Ichigo said to his hollow.

"_Yeah, fullbring does use hollow reishi after all_" the hollow spoke back "_It only makes sense I'd be back sooner or later_"

"_Well it's been nice talking to you_" Ichigo thought and his hollow silently agreed, with that final thought Ichigo shattered into millions of reistu particles never to return to what he once called home.

* * *

(Hospital somewhere else in another world)

"Congratulations Kushina-san, you have twins" the nurse said causing Kushina to freeze up for a moment before she responded.

"Whoo, I'm gonna have twins" Kushina shouted at the top of her voice jumping out of the chair she was sitting on and throwing her arms into the air.

"Careful Kushina-san, don't be too loud you might hurt some peoples ears" the nurse said blocking her ears.


	2. Chapter 2

(Night of the Kyuubi attack)

_Splash._ The sound of the anbu ninja hitting the river below went unheard, as the attacker had disposed of the other guards previously. Quietly the attacker sunk into the entrance of the cave in which Kushina Uzumaki was giving birth to her twins. The infiltrator was a masked man with dark hair and the mask concealing his face had one eyehole, it was decorated with black markings. The man also wore a cloak a dark cloak with red clouds that concealed the rest of his body.

As he walked further into the cave he could begin to make out muffled sounds of pain through the various walls between him and the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. Only a matter of time now until the time was right where he could take the Kyuubi for himself to wreak havoc among the citizens of Konoha. Something he had not expected however was that Kushina would be giving birth to two children rather than just one, this would just make his mission all the easier.

* * *

(Birth room)

"Ahhhhh" Kushina cried out as she gave birth to her first child. This child looked rather calm for a newborn, something unexpected but it just showed that he was either tired or sleepy. He had orange hair.

"That's the first one" the nurse said as she hurried to get the child dry and keep him warm.

"Keep your eyes on the seal Minato, don't get distracted, if you fail then all of us will be in great danger" the elder said to Minato noticing that he was trying to get a look at his firstborn.

"Right sorry" Minato replied and went back to focusing on the seal that seemed to almost be halfway open on Kushina's stomach. The seal was very hard to keep shut because of the massive amounts of chakra he had to pour into it and also due to the fact that the Kyuubi was struggling harder than ever to break through the seal at this time of weakness shown during the birth period where Kushina would be at her weakest.

"Just keep focused, at the time Mito gave birth to a child the Kyuubi almost broke free even with all the precautions we made and that was with only one child, it's a miracle the seal has only opened as far as it has, you will have to give it your all to keep the Kyuubi restrained for the birth of the second child because she won't have any energy left after this" the elder said trying to urge Minato to keep the Kyuubi at bay.

* * *

The masked man prepared to enter the room when he heard the second child was finally born. He used Kamui to slip into the room undetected and instantly took out the anbu stationed in the room all while doing the same to the nurses although to a much lesser extent, he had no need to kill them so why should he?

Once all the nurses had been taken out he picked up the two twins that were covered in cloth in one arm and slowly retreated to the back of the room. "Step away from the Jinchuriki" the masked man commanded Minato who was the only man left standing in the room.

XXX

"_Huh…alive, but how could I be alive? I distinctly remember dying" _Ichigo thought as he slowly began to gain an awareness of his surroundings "_and why do I remember? Wasn't it when someone was reborn or died they forgot everything"_

_"Well kingy you ain't exactly normal"_ a hollow voice spoke in Ichigo's mind.

Hollow voice? What could that mean? Wait! Even his hollow was with him.

_"It seems that you have been reborn and you do retain your memories and what not buuuut we have new parents and your strength and reiryoku levels have hit rock bottom meaning that this whole rebirth process has wiped you clean, in other words your as harmless at a regular child, you're gonna have to work to get all that power back" _the hollow said _"although it seems that your fullbring remains by the looks of it, I mean the extra looks I get from you gaining that power makes me look badass."_

"_You aren't gonna try take over are you? 'Cause that's all I'm really worried about at the moment…wait what about Zangetsu? what about him?"_ Ichigo said to his hollow.

_"Nah, there's no need to beat you up anymore to get stronger at least at the moment anyway and Zangestu, I can't seem to find him in here, either he's permanently merged with you or he's still sleeping"_ the hollow said.

_"What's that supposed to mean?" _Ichigo said annoyed at the fact that his hollow hadn't given him a straight answer for his first question.

_"What it means is I'm not gonna try take over unless your about to die and you could really do with a boost and get all your wounds healed and that I'll be happy to fight you anytime"_ the hollow said back.

_"Alright then…where's Tou-san and Ka-san, you know my new parents?"_ Ichigo asked the hollow.

_"Just open your eyes and look to your right, some evil dude has come to try and take us away from the looks of it, I don't know the full situation I only just woke up myself"_ the hollow said.

With the conversation in his head over Ichigo slowly opened his eyes to look at his new environment. At first there in front of him was a masked man who seemed to be demanding something called a Jinchuriki. Losing focus on said man Ichigo turned his head to the right to see a blond haired man with blue eyes looking worriedly into his own.

_"Must be Tou-san"_ Ichigo thought before his gaze drifted over to a red headed woman who was trying to arch her head backwards to look at him "_and that must be Ka-san."_ Ichigo continued to liger his gaze on them for a while longer before his father stepped forward and vanished appearing above the masked man that held Ichigo. "_F…f..fast" _Ichigo thought.

XXX

"But…" Minato tried to plead but was cut off by the man's commanding voice as he repeated the same words again.

"Step away from the Jinchuriki" the masked man said a little louder this time.

"Save them Minato" Kushina pleaded from her spot on the bed she was lying on obviously in pain that the Kyuubi was attempting to escape still, that fact was proven by the black bulge from the centre of the seal mark on her stomach that was present.

Minato jumped forwards and used Hiranshin to move above the attacker and retrieve his children, however that didn't work as the man already anticipated this and had already begun to move towards Kushina making him react and move back in front of her to catch the attacker before he got to her. Again Minato was unable to catch the man as he threw the blond headed boy he carried at Minato who almost fumbled and dropped the baby at his surprise. However that moment didn't last long as the distinct sound of paper bombs filled the air and ignited almost instantaneously. Minato managed to get the cloth off of his child just in time and used his Hiranshin to move it to the training grounds before taking himself and his child to his home.

"Now you stay here for now and wait for me ok" Minato said to the sleeping child as he lay the baby in the bed in the room that could be assumed to be the child's. After placing the child in the bed he once again used Hiranshin to teleport outside to find his wife.

* * *

(Some place outside the village)

"What are you doing?" Kushina yelled at the masked man while she remained tied by her wrists by chakra seals that held her in place to prevent her from moving, escaping or even saving Ichigo from the mans clutches.

"I" the man said pausing a little "have waited many years for this day…a day where I would be able to extract the Kyuubi from you and use it's power to destroy Konoha…and that day is today because you" he said pointing at Kushina "had children brought forth into this world, the seal restraining the Kyuubi is weaker than ever now, and I will not miss my chance" the man finished before he looked at Kushina in the eyes with his sharingan. Red chakra spewed forth from her body as the Kyuubi struggled even harder than before to release itself of the chains that held it in confinement because the man willed it to do so.

Finally the beast burst forth from Kushina's body and she collapsed to the ground coughing and wheezing as the Kyuubi let out a mighty roar into the distance.

"_Holy shit…"_ Ichigo thought as he looked up at the giant beast that was sealed inside his mother "_that…thing was inside Ka-san"_ Ichigo finished looking at the sight that was the Kyuubi and looked back to his mother who was barely holding onto her consciousness struggling not to fall asleep and keep looking at him. Ichigo had had enough this guy was hurting his Ka-san and he didn't like it "_hey you bastard stay away from her"_ Ichigo tried to yell but all that came from his mouth was the cry of a child, not what he wanted "_Tsk, great, I'm like a newborn in everyway, I can't even speak"_ Ichigo said to himself.

"I'm amazed that you're still alive," the masked man said "the host usually dies when the beast is extracted, the Uzumaki really are something else, to survive an extraction and just after childbirth and two at that, it's definitely impressive."

Suddenly Minato appeared beside Kushina in a flash. "_What?! Is he teleporting now or something 'cause that definitely wasn't speed"_ Ichigo though as he saw his Tou-san come to apparently his and his mothers rescue.

"Minato save him save Ichigo" Kushina pleaded from her position in Minato's arms while looking into his eyes heartbroken at the fact that their son could die at any moment only minutes old.

"Finally got a name for him did you" Minato said earning a slight nod from Kushina before he continued "I will save him but I can't save both of you at the same time" Minato said before looking up again at the masked man.

"I should have expected you to come save her" the man said " but no matter, Kyuubi destroy them" the man commanded the beast.

The Kyuubi listened to the mans words and raised one of it's claws before letting it descend at blinding speeds to wipe out Minato and Kushina, both of which had disappeared by the time the claw finally hit the ground.

The man swayed to and fro on his feet a little before sticking a foot out turning around and stepping forward disappearing into a Kamui as he left to head to the village. "Oh well, they managed to escape but I got the Kyuubi…" the man then paused and stopped in the Kamui before looking down at the child he held in his arms both of his violet eyes looking straight at the man with a look of anger "now why are you looking at me like that?" the man said before Ichigo spit in his face. "Ahhahahahaaaaa," the man screamed running in circles inside the pocket dimension they were in "you got it in my eye! Why would you do that?" the man said hysterically before calming down and finally wiping his eye with his sleeve.

"_Heh, serves you right for doing that to my Ka-san" _Ichigo said in his mind.

_"You're being rather possessive aren't you kingy"_ the hollow spoke up.

"_Oh shut up, my first mother Masaki died because of a madman like him, I'll feel depressed for the rest of my life if that happens here"_ Ichigo said back.

* * *

(Uzumaki/Namikaze house)

Minato appeared in the room that Naruto lay in and placed Kushina on the bed with him. Naruto was sleeping peacefully, completely oblivious to the happenings of the world around him as Kushina lay next to him checking him over before looking over to face Minato once more.

"You'll save him won't you? You'll save him" Kushina said tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at Minato voice cracking.

"Of course I will, I'll come back with him" Minato said as he put on his coat with fourth Hokage written on the back of it with flame like markings on the edge of the coat at the bottom. That was all Kushina needed to hear before her head collapsed to the pillow and she passed out from exhaustion.

Minato took one last look at Kushina before he disappeared out to find Ichigo and stop the man who was controlling the Kyuubi.

* * *

(Outside village walls)

The masked man was now just outside the walls of Konoha preparing to perform a summoning jutsu to bring the Kyuubi into the village and destroy it.

"**Summoning Jutsu**" the man said performing the necessary hand signs and slamming his hand into the ground. The area was instantly covered in a cloud of smoke as the Kyuubi came into existence underneath the man who summoned it, somehow still holding Ichigo in his arms while performing the jutsu.

"Ahh now…let's begin, Kyuubi destroy the village" the man commanded and so the Kyuubi began it's attack on the village.

* * *

(Hokage Monument)

On the other side of the village a Minato appeared on one of the Hokage faces and looked at the Kyuubi as it began destroying the village by swiping it's claws down upon the buildings. "_Where is he? Where is Ichigo?"_ Minato thought as he scanned the area quickly knowing that he wouldn't have much time before he had to fight the Kyuubi and save the village but he needed to look quickly, for Kushina, and himself. "_There! On the Kyuubi with the masked man"_ Minato said in his mind "_I've gotta save him and now"_

While Minato was watching the Kyuubi he failed to notice that the Kyuubi had stopped it's attack on the village until it began staring him down. "_So you've noticed me huh…Kyuubi"_ Minato thought as he looked back at it in the eyes. Not long after the staring contest began the Kyuubi decided to form red and blue chakra balls in the air around it, which then all fused together and formed a giant purple ball of chakra that was then launched at Minato.

"_No you don't"_ Minato thought while forming various hand signals and pouring chakra into his jutsu creating a tear in the space in front of him surrounded by floating symbols of the justsu outlining its border. The giant Chakra ball then slammed into the space-time jutsu and disappeared moments later an explosion happened in the distance suggesting that that is where Minato sent the Kyuubi's attack.

After that Minato bit his thumb drawing blood while running over towards the Kyuubi jumping into the air and performing some hand signs before doing his own summoning jutsu "**Summoning Jutsu**" Minato shouted. A cloud of smoke appeared before Gamabunta and another giant toad with two giant pronged poles. "Could you hold down the Kyuubi for a moment" Minato shouted not really giving them a choice as he had pretty much summoned them over the top of the Kyuubi when he had summoned them.

"You're not giving us much of a choice now are you Minato, but we'll do our best, you better hurry up though it won't be long before he breaks free of our grip" Gamabunta said to Minato while trying to hold down the Kyuubi.

"Thanks, you're giving me all the time I need" Minato said as he yet again performed another jutsu that sent both himself and the Kyuubi out of the village and crashing into another site not too far from the village.

"Where are they third Hokage?" a Jonin asked Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage.

"Over there, let's go" Sarutobi said when he saw some dust pick up in the distance pointing to it and immediately sprinting towards it to help the fourth.

* * *

(Another place somewhere outside the village)

"_Shit that last jutsu really took it out of me, transporting something the size of the Kyuubi is no easy task, it has to be sealed but how…where's Ichigo?"_ Minato began frantically looking in all directions for any sign of him but couldn't see any. "_I see…"_ Minato thought as he narrowed his eyes "_forgive me Kushina"_

Minato disappeared using Hiranshin and reappeared in the room where Kushina and Naruto lay resting. Minato then walked up to Kushina and bent over kissing her on the cheek before picking up Naruto who shifted in his arms at the sudden movement of being lifted out of the comfortable warmth of his mother. "Sorry" Minato said before he left in a flash leaving Kushina asleep by herself in the room still completely drained.

The Kyuubi had finally gotten back onto it's feet when Minato returned with Naruto in his arms "_That jutsu really leaves you feeling dizzy and unwell"_ the Kyuubi thought as it stumbled to it's feet only to see Minato erecting a sealing barrier to keep other out of his affair with the Kyuubi. Another barrier was made around the Kyuubi itself to stop it for the mean time not that it would take any longer than a minute for the Kyuubi to break through, that would be all the time he needed to complete the ritual.

"**No what do you think you are doing foolish human? I will not be sealed again! This vessel looks even more pathetic than my last one! Do you seriously think this child has what it takes to have my entirety sealed into himself**" the Kyuubi spoke putting emphasis on my.

"No your right," Minato said to the Kyuubi "he won't be able to handle it…yet"

That just confused the Kyuubi what did he mean by yet?

"I have a feeling that…sometime in the future someone will use the shinigami's mask to free all the souls that have been trapped inside it, so I will not be cursed to staying in that thing for more than a few years and I will be able to pass on freely and properly" Minato said, the Kyuubi's eyes widening at the explanation. Minato summoned the shinigami.

"**Are you insane?**" the Kyuubi roared.

"No, but I think you are" Minato said as the shinigami began reaching through Minato and towards the intended target, the Kyuubi. "I'm going to seal away half of your power into myself and my son." As soon as Minato said that the shinigami hand ripped out half of the Kyuubi's soul and power and sealed it within Minato.

"**What about your other son…eh Min-a-to**" the Kyuubi taunted "**You know what that man said while he had your son in his arms? No? Perfect insurance. You know what that means don't you he's going to train him to fight against the village**" the Kyuubi finished roaring at the top of it's voice.

"Shut up!" Minato roared back at the Kyuubi "Ichigo will never do that!" Minato said adamant to the fact that he believed that his son would never turn against his own people much less his parents or mother once he's gone. "Eight trigrams seal!" Minato shouted and with a bright flash the Kyuubi was gone and a new swirl like marking lay at the centre of Naruto's stomach in which the Kyuubi lay behind bars. "Sorry Kushina" Minato said as he collapsed to his knees finally starting to get the cold feeling of dying "I failed to save Ichigo…and I have laid a curse upon Naruto" and with those final words Minato toppled over dead.


	3. Chapter 3

_"Congratulations kingy! You've gotten us into a huge amount of trouble and you can't even speak yet, you're a toddler"_ Ichigo's hollow laughed at him.

"_Oh shut up"_ Ichigo said to his hollow obviously annoyed at his antics "_at least it isn't the masked guy called Tobi isn't 'taking care' of us anymore"_

_"Oh yeah I must admit, this Konan chick is way better to look at than that other guy"_ the hollow said with an approving tone to his voice.

"_You never change, do you?" _Ichigo said to his hollow sighing in exasperation.

_"You bet pal, buuut she is a bit older than us…at least physically that is, does that matter to you? 'Cause if not I wouldn't mind taking a piece if you know what I mean"_ the hollow said making Ichigo start to get really uncomfortable with the direction in which the conversation was headed.

"_Alright, nighty night hollow"_ Ichigo said as he shoved the hollow to the back of his mind where he couldn't be heard by Ichigo.

"_No…wait, I'm not done yet nooooo!__"_ the hollow Ichigo shouted as his voice faded into the back of Ichigo's mind surely complaining that he wasn't getting to look at Konan's curves anymore.

"_Ahh, well now that he's been handled I guess I'm just gonna have to wait until I get a bit older and more developed to acquire the speed and strength I'll need to escape these people, and that jutsu stuff sounds cool too. I should probably learn some of that, it seems to be a mix or reiryoku and something else from what I can tell, and unfortunately that's not much (sigh) I wish I could be better at sensing energy signatures. Well practice makes perfect, time to begin"_

* * *

(Leaf village hospital room)

"Where…are…Minato…and…Ichigo…and…Naruto!" Kushina breathed out fear radiating in her voice as she lay in her hospital bed, which was understandable considering the circumstances of the last twenty-four hours. "Where are they!" Kushina screamed at the several ninja that stood before her including the third Hokage.

"Kushina…" Sarutobi sighed "Minato's dead" at hearing this Kushina burst into tears shouting at him that he was lying, never the less he continued "Naruto is unharmed as far as we are aware but…he is…the new Kyuubi Jinchuriki" Sarutobi said the last part in a hushed whisper.

"He's what! The new Jinchuriki!" Kushina shouted at Sarutobi.

"_Shit she heard me! What do I do now? Run?"_ Sarutobi was quickly trying to think of escape options but stopped as soon as he saw Kushina slump down in her seated position on the bed.

"Bring him here" Kushina said voice dangerously low.

"Quick bring Naruto before she kills us all" somebody shouted before everyone began shuffling about in the tiny hospital room that they were all in and a tiny form of a baby was brought forth to Kushina. She instantly wrapped her arms around Naruto's small form beginning to cry as soon as she saw the seal mark on him.

"Where's my other son" Kushina said suddenly said causing all of the ninja and nurses present to freeze up at the request and some at the back of the room run out screaming at the top of their lungs that 'red headed hot habanero was going to kill them all'…it didn't happen. Rather Kushina broke down in a heaping mess that didn't move for the next week.

* * *

(A week later)

When Kushina finally recovered and began interacting with her environment and the people around her again she was slow but picked up pace as the days went by and by the end of a month she was taking care of herself and Naruto and was back to her usual life except that Ichigo and Minato weren't a part of it.

* * *

(6 years later village hidden in the rain)

"Ichigo you have done well," the Tobi said "at least I believe that's your name" the Tobi whispered to himself. "Aaaaand I lost myself, well good work with your training, see ya!" the Tobi said before leaving…again, he'd come in and out of the place at least five times today, it was unbelievable.

_"That was quick"_ Ichigo's hollow said in amusement as he watched the man leave.

"_Yeeep"_ Ichigo said in return not amused at all "_maybe it's time we got out of here"_

_"No shit kingy"_ the hollow said _"I've been here waaay too long, that guy's gonna kill me someday…not literally but you get what I mean"_

"Yeah yeah I get it" Ichigo said out loud to his hollow. Trying to sense whether anyone else was around and concluded there wasn't when he didn't feel anyone's chakra signature from the Akatsuki. Carefully navigating the halls without making a sound Ichigo made his way to the exit, and that's when he heard the rain. "_I hate the rain"_ Ichigo said inwardly.

_"Too bad we're in the land of rain, although one of your chakra natures is water"_ Ichigo's hollow said trying to feel a little light hearted, even if it wasn't his style, the rain made him too feel sad.

"_Yeah…hey wait a minute we might be able to get out unnoticed" _Ichigo said to his hollow. If one of his chakra natures is water all he had to do was become water until he made it out of the village, pain wouldn't notice him.

_"Tch, fat chance,"_ the hollow said back realising what Ichigo was thinking, _"he has the eyes of 'destiny', you know the freaky purple ring eyes, and he'll notice you 'cause he's the one making it rain, the eyes of his just make it ten times more impossible to travel through the rain without using something to travel in like a person, and I know that's out of the question for you, especially since you saw Orochimaru"_

"_Ahh" _Ichigo yelled in frustration "_the sewage lines it is then"_

_"Eww, that's gross man"_ the hollow said in disgust but was silenced by the mental look he was given from Ichigo realising that what he had said was what made Ichigo make that decision. _"Heheh"_ the hollow laughed sheepishly _"maybe your original idea was best after all"_ he said but not before Ichigo jumped down into one of the oversized openings into the underground system that made up the pipe network of the village hidden in the rain. _"Huh…not as bad as I imagined it would be"_ the hollow stated seeing everything through Ichigo's eyes.

"_Let's go"_ Ichigo said initiating his bringer light and began flashing through the tunnels to the further reaches of the village.

In the world of ninja as Ichigo had come to know, chakra was just simply spiritual and physical energy combined, it was much easier to manipulate than reiryoku alone. Something about the physical energy tamed it and made it less explosive so to say, less powerful, although much more versatile. All Ichigo had to do to use bringer light was the same thing as in his previous life, push against the 'soul' or latent energy that is held within each object. It was quite useful really; it had also lead to him being able to absorb small amounts of chakra through the air. (Not quiet like sage mode, this ability doesn't go to that extent; it just means he recuperates faster than he already did, pretty fast)

* * *

(Village hidden in the leaves/Konoha, a week later)

Naruto was currently playing by himself in the park. No one would play with him after all, not even his only and best friend Sasuke, he was after all just sitting by himself as usual thinking about the Uchiha massacre that happened last year. He wouldn't do anything with Naruto anymore which just left Naruto feeling left out among the other children who would play at the park all day and then get picked up by their parents who would then ask if they played with the demon blonde boy. When they said no they would ask time and again 'why?' and their parents would just say 'it's better this way'. The reason why they wouldn't answer their children properly was because the citizens that knew the truth about Naruto were forbidden to tell the younger generation in hopes that he would grow up happy, alas it didn't work as the children were given treats and other incentives to keep them away from Naruto by their parents and eventually it would be hardwired into their minds.

"Hey there he is" someone shouted, "it's the demon brat, get him"

_"Uh-oh"_ Naruto thought. This wasn't good, when this happened his mother was often around to fend off the attackers, but she wasn't here, Naruto was alone at the park. "_Time to run"_ Naruto's thoughts concluded as he jumped off the swing and sprinted for the fence opposite the side the people were herding in from and jumped up it grabbing on and rapidly began climbing over it to escape the pursuers. Naruto jumped down the other side of the fence escaping the civilians and began running as fast as he could towards home. It was safe there, it always was.

A few minutes later Naruto was still running from the pursuers, they sure were persistent today, they hadn't even realized where he was headed which could mean one of two things. One, his mother was out on a mission, two, they simply didn't care whether or not Kushina was going to beat sense into them anymore. It was probably the former.

Pervy sage probably wasn't in either, whenever he was here Naruto always had something to laugh at, mostly because of the beating he got from his mother when he first tried to get Naruto to trial his Icha Icha books.

Naruto rounded the corner and slammed into someone causing him and the other person to fall backwards on their bum. Naruto had closed his eyes a little at impact from shock of running into someone and when he opened them he saw a boy about the same age as him with bright orange hair and purple eyes dressed in basic civilian attire with a tattoo of some sort on his left shoulder visible because of the fact that his shirt was sleeveless.

"Uhh, sorry," Naruto said as he scrambled to his feet getting ready to leave when he noticed that the other boy had gripped his wrist rather tightly "hey!" Naruto struggled to get free of the boys grip but to no avail as he continued to face the other way "I said I'm sorry, now let go!"

"Have they been bothering you?" the boy said looking at the civilians that had now surrounded them due to their standing in the one spot for too long.

"Yeah, and now they've caught me because your holding onto me" Naruto said frustratedly, fear welling up inside him "my mother hasn't taught me enough about ninja stuff yet to get away fast enough from them, all I've learnt so far is chakra manipulation and how to throw kunai and shuriken with extreme accuracy and speed, other than that just a little taijutsu, now let go"

"Did you do something to them?" the boy asked Naruto once again as though Naruto hadn't just tried to explain that he wasn't completely helpless.

"Ehhh! No! I didn't do anything, and I just don't want to hurt them, that's why I haven't fought back…plus they're kinda big and scary in crowds like this" Naruto whispered the last part.

"Where do you live then?" the boy asked once again voice never wavering.

"_What's with this guy? Is he going to help me or something"_ Naruto thought. "Uhh, that way, a couple of blocks over" Naruto said pointing in the direction he was heading before he crashed into the orange-haired boy.

"Then let's go" the boy said moving to grip Naruto's shoulder who was too late to realise what was happening until he felt an awful churning feeling in his stomach from the sudden acceleration of the boy launching them into the air at high speeds and onto a nearby roof top.

Naruto felt like emptying the contents of his stomach right there and now. "_What was that"_ Naruto thought as he went to grasp his belly and keel over but was unable to as the boy once again launched them through the air in a sudden movement.

Moments later they were standing outside Naruto's house and Naruto was emptying his stomach into a drain just off on the street while the boy stood waiting patiently at the doorstep for something.

When Naruto had finally finished his up chuck he went to the front door of his house to see the boy standing their with an impassive look on his face. "Are you ok?" the boy said surprising Naruto a bit at seeing a small frown on the boys face that made him look a little intimidating.

"Uh…I'm fine, hehe," Naruto said waving his arms all over "really, I'm fine" he said again trying to convince the boy in front of him who had an unmoving expression on his face either not believing or simply not caring. (Sigh) "Can I help you?" Naruto said when the boy still hadn't moved from his spot. When he said this however the boy broke into a face splitting grin. "_Uh oh, what's he going to say"_ Naruto thought, with dread welling up inside him.

"Why yes you can," the boy said almost too cheerfully "could you either give me a large sum of money for my services at helping you escape or, allow me to eat you out of a home" the boy said causing Naruto's eye to twitch at the request.

"Just how hungry are you?" Naruto screamed at the boy who winced at the loud voice coming from Naruto who was standing directly in front of him.

"Well considering I haven't had anything closely resembling a meal in the past three days let's see…pretty damn hungry" the boy said smiling causing Naruto to wonder how he was still standing and break, he was going to feed him.

* * *

(Hokage's office)

"Lord Hokage" an anbu officer said as soon as he shunshinned into the Hokage's office.

"Yes, what is it?" Sarutobi said as he looked up from his paperwork towards the anbu officer in front of his desk.

"Someone entered the village that we are not sure about," the anbu officer paused "we…well I would like to observe this child for a while"

"Child?" Sarutobi said taking his pipe out of his mouth with a questioning tone.

"Yes sir, from what records we have of a certain child he bears a remarkable resemblance to the child sir" the anbu said.

"And you want to find out whether or not this child is related to the one you think he is," Sarutobi said receiving an affirmative from the anbu (sigh) "very well, where is he now may I ask"

"He is currently, and I quote 'eating Naruto Uzumaki out of a home'," the anbu said making Sarutobi raise an eyebrow in question "he's uhh, how can I put this, stuffing himself with food, the very food that Kushina-san bought to fill the house a few days ago"

"This isn't good," Sarutobi said, voice beginning to fill with dread "she's coming back from her mission early tomorrow morning…and how did you know about the shopping"

"I happened to be doing a perimeter check sir" the anbu said.

"Sure you were Kakashi…you were checking Naruto again weren't you?" Sarutobi said not appearing surprised.

"Awww you got me," the Kakashi replied scratching the back of his head sheepishly smiling slightly underneath his mask, which was shaped like a dogface. "But please refrain from using my name while like this, we wouldn't want anyone finding out who I am"

"I'm sure everyone already knows who you are, you keep carting all those perverse novels Jiraiya writes around with you, it's sure to be a dead give-away, get going now" Sarutobi said dismissing Kakashi who nodded in response and left the old man to his paper work. "_Why would a simple child make Kakashi assume that it's any trouble worth looking up about them? No it couldn't…don't tell me he thinks this is Kushina's other child"_ Sarutobi thought putting his hand up over his face thinking how ridiculous it was.

* * *

"Thanks for the food" Ichigo said overjoyed at filling his stomach leaving nothing but a crumb in Naruto's home making Naruto slump his arms forward and gain tears in his eyes.

Both boys were currently sitting opposite each other on the two couches in the living space one comfortably seated with contempt displayed in his behavior and the other sadness at his current position in helping the other.

"_Kaa-san's going to kill me when she gets back tomorrow"_ Naruto thought crying on the inside at seeing what the other boy had done to his home food supply, now he'd need to go out and buy more before his mother got home. "Hey what are you doing?" Naruto yelled when he saw the boy lie down on the couch and close his eyes.

"Going to sleep, what's it look like?" the boy said rolling over onto his side facing away from Naruto.

"You can't! Not here!" Naruto shouted throwing his arms in the air, but he was too late as snoring sounds could already be heard from the boy on the lounge. Naruto once again slumped his shoulders forward dreading the return of his mother. "Why is this happening to me" Naruto mumbled.

* * *

(Village hidden in the rain, four days ago)

"Where is he?" Tobi yelled looking around the building in which Ichigo had been kept, extremely angered that he couldn't find Ichigo anywhere, even in the entirety of the village, not even pain could sight him.

"He's gone" white Zetsu said appearing out of a wall behind Tobi.

"Tell me something I don't know" Tobi roared "or do you know where he is?"

"I don't know where he is," white Zetsu said "he's too fast"

Too fast indeed, Ichigo's speed was nothing to laugh at especially for one as young as him, although it was hardly surprising considering whom his father was, 'the yellow flash'. His speed may have been one of the greatest out there but his strength and chakra levels were only at that of a high level Genin bordering on low-chunin, it shouldn't be that hard to defeat him and drag him back. However that all depended on where he was, if it was deep within enemy territory he was lost for good and would be counted as an enemy.

* * *

"Yo, Naruto, how are you?" Kakashi said popping up behind a sleepy Naruto making him jump up off the couch he was still sitting on, getting scared shitless.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto screamed.

"Just checking in" Kakashi said casually before looking over to where another boy slept on a couch "and who's this?" Kakashi asked motioning towards the boy on the couch for Naruto to understand.

"I don't know" Naruto said in exasperation "he didn't tell me, he just ate all the food then fell asleep"

"Then why don't we find out" Kakashi said as he walked over to the boy on the couch. When Kakashi stood in front of the boy he went to give hi m a light kick but found himself mildly surprised and unprepared when the boy jumped up and kicked him in the face causing him to barrel into the kitchen and slam into the wall. "Uhh, that hurt" Kakashi said as he picked himself up and turned to face the boy whom was looking at him apologetically with a small smile on his face while standing on the couch.

"Sorry" the boy said.

"It's alright, now sit down, I want to talk to you" Kakashi said as he came back into the room. At the same time the boy sat and looked at Kakashi before he asked a question.

"Is it necessary to wear a mask all the time?" the boy asked.

"How do you know I wear it all the time?" Kakashi asked while sitting down on the couch opposite the boy, "I could have simply forgotten to take it off"

"There's a tan line" the boy pointed to Kakashi's face spotting a faint difference in skin colour where the mask had fallen down his face a bit after Ichigo kicked him.

"Oh…good point" Kakashi said before he went back to the subject he was going to talk about before he was kicked in the face, "who are you?"

"Good question, names Ichigo" Ichigo said causing Kakashi's eyes to widen slightly but went unnoticed by the other two occupants of the room.

"Any…last name perhaps?" Kakashi enquired.

"Weeeell, I'm not too sure but I'm pretty sure it was along the lines of Uzumaki-Namikaze" Ichigo continued causing Kakashi to faint and topple over slamming his head into the coffee table on the way to the floor.

"Ehhh, so are you a cousin of mine or something?" Naruto asked Ichigo.

"Maybe" Ichigo said shrugging his shoulders "now since he's down for the count" Ichigo said motioning towards Kakashi's prone form "I…am going back to sleep"

"Hey wait…great" Naruto said the last part with a huff.

* * *

(Early morning next day)

Kushina was dead tired from her mission and needed some rest so all she wanted to do when she got home was fall asleep, but imagine when to her surprise when she saw a sleeping Kakashi on the floor and another odd boy with…orange hair. "_My son was the only child that I knew of having orange hair and his physical appearance certainly fits the age category…no it can't be, stop doing this to yourself Kushina"_ Kushina thought to herself "_and what's Kakashi doing here."_ "Naruto" Kushina called out "where are you"

Naruto instantly bounded out of his room with a look of fear on his face, because he thought his mother might harm him for allowing Kakashi to sleep on the floor and a strange boy to sleep on the couch. "Yes, what is it?" Naruto said but was only answered by hs mother pointing at the other two people in the room. "Uhh, Kakashi-san kind of fainted when the other boy told him his name and wouldn't wake up even when I tried to make him, and the other boy came in here about midday yesterday and ate all the food before falling asleep on the couch"

"Really?" Kushina said putting her hands on her hips, receiving an afraid and shaking yes for an answer. Kushina could be really scary at times. "Even all the Ramen?" Kushina questioned again receiving a questioning face from Naruto causing Kushina to smile triumphantly. "Yess" Kushina cheered "he didn't find the ramen. "Now" Kushina said looking back at the boy on the couch more or less pleased that not everything had been eaten "who is this?"

"He only said his name," Naruto said but nonetheless Kushina motioned for him to continue "he said it was Ichigo Uzumaki-Namikaze"

"Now don't you dare lie to me" Kushina said in a dangerous tone receiving an 'eep' from Naruto whom scampered from the room as soon as Kushina said it afraid that hiss mother might come after him.

"I'm not lying" Naruto called out from another location in the home "I'd be careful if I were you he kicked Kakashi in the face when Kakashi tried to wake him up"

"_Impossible"_ Kushina thought "_but there he is right there, imagine that he was delivered practically to my doorstep and he's right there"_ Kushina continued to say to herself completely oblivious to what Naruto had just said as she edged closer towards Ichigo and finally sat down beside him. Kushina then continued to look at Ichigo's sleeping form for a while longer before she fell on top of him giving him a bone-crushing hug receiving a strangled gasp in return.

"Get off, get off, can't breath" Ichigo said as he was oh so rudely awoken from his slumber as Kushina began to cry heavily into his back making him stop moving and wonder who it was.

_"Hey king,"_ Ichigo's hollow spoke up _"I'd recognize this chakra signature anywhere, we're home"_


	4. Chapter 4

About review question:A question I received in the reviews was: are reiryoku and chakra the same in this fic or are they completely different? I believe that I already clarified that in chapters 2 and 3, more of a hint in 2 but more explained in 3. But to answer again, no they are not the same but neither are they completely different. In the naruto series chakra is the combination of spiritual energy (reiryoku) and physical energy. In the 2nd chapter I also said that Ichigo's chakra levels have hit rock bottom and he will need to train again to get back to his old strength level. He still has a fair amount of chakra when reborn but it is still only a small amount compared to shinobi (more than average civilian) and his old power.

As for pairings, I'm not sure who I would pair him with but I think I might have a few in mind who I could pair him with. If you have any recommendations or just an idea of who you think I should pair him (Ichigo) with please either have it in your review or more preferably in a **PM** to me. thanks

* * *

Ichigo and his brother were currently walking to the ninja academy where they would learn about becoming a ninja. Ichigo of course already had the skills of at least a Jonin (it was actually beyond that but age held him back a little from performing his best in the trial) but his strength level said otherwise as well as some slight tweaks thanks to Kushina pulling a few strings, so the highest placement he could afford in the village at the moment according to Sarutobi was Chunin. However for Ichigo to reach the level of Chunin he first had to obtain the level of Genin and that meant he had to go through ninja academy with Naruto much to his displeasure, not that he didn't like Naruto or that at times he could be a real handful it was just the fact that Ichigo already knew what they taught in the academy thanks to the Akatsuki drilling it into him during the six years of his life that he was with them.

"Hey Sasuke" Naruto yelled out as he saw his friend appear from around the next corner. Sasuke just looked at him before turning away and continuing to walk towards the academy only to look back over his shoulder at Ichigo. Once Sasuke looked over Ichigo he turned back to the way he was walking and sped off trying to distance himself from them a slight look of fear on his face when he turned away. "Hm, I wonder why he walked away so fast," Naruto said failing to notice the ever present scowl on Ichigo's face as he looked off into the distance spotting the academy "Ichigo there it is" Naruto pointed to the academy.

_"Hey Kingy, your gonna have to stop scowling all the time like your Kaa-san told you otherwise you're gonna scare away all the other kids"_ Ichigo's hollow said reminding him of the day he finally met his mother.

* * *

_FLASH BACK_

Ichigo just continued to lie on his side as Kushina cried into his back believing that he was her long lost child. After a while Ichigo had managed to shift out from under her and sit up by himself recovering from his darkened colour via lack of oxygen to his body. While recovering Kushina had a good chance to look him over and take in his appearance. Orange hair, purple eyes just like hers and a rather muscular body for one his age. His facial structure also slightly resembled Naruto's except it was sharper and more defined than Naruto's whose face was a bit rounder like hers. This had to be her son.

"Hello…Kaa-san" Ichigo said smiling at her. "_Well this is slightly weird, how am I going to explain I know who she is?"_

_"I don't think you need to worry about that, just don't allow her to hug us like that again I think you were a dark shade of purple"_ Ichigo's hollow said.

"You know who I am?" Kushina asked wiping tears away from her face while sniffling.

"Ehhhhh!" Naruto shouted "he's my brother?!"

Ichigo just looked at Naruto again checking him over. "_Hmm, overall he looks fairly smart but current conversation antics suggest otherwise"_ Ichigo observed. "It appears that I am" Ichigo said face unmoving all while observing Naruto.

"How can you say it like it's not a big deal, I just found out I had a brother!" Naruto said while Ichigo observed beginning to snicker at Naruto's actions before blowing out into full-blown laughter. "Why are you laughing now?" Naruto said getting frustrated "are you laughing at me?"

"Maybe" Ichigo said stopping his laughter.

Meanwhile Kushina began to smile at the two in front of her wondering how Ichigo was already managing to tease Naruto so easily.

"So Ichigo," Kushina began "where have you been all this time?" Kushina asked.

"With a group called the Akatsuki" Ichigo said "they're just a bunch of people that claim that they can bring peace to the world but all they do is make war with others and force people to do things that they don't want to do, that is if their not already with the Akatsuki"

"Did they hurt you? Are you ok?" Kushina began to spout questions about his health straight after Ichigo answered her previous question, all while grabbing his face twisting and turning it from side to side trying to get a better look at it.

"I'm ok, now could you let go of me" Ichigo said being rather annoyed with the fact that at the moment he was trapped in his mother's grip.

"No" Kushina said pulling him into a hug again only this time she wasn't crushing Ichigo with monstrous force. "You know you're going to have to stop scowling all the time if you're gonna want to make friends with all the other kids no matter how mature you already seem to act" Kushina said still holding onto Ichigo. "Now what do you want for dinner, you're return requires a great feast of your favourite food" Kushina said. _"Please be ramen, please be ramen" _Kushina thought.

"Anything but ramen" Ichigo answered to her question "plus we'll have to go out shopping I already ate everything in the kitchen…except the ramen"

"_Noooooo, how can an Uzumaki not like ramen"_ Kushina thought horrified at the fact that her son didn't like ramen.

While Kushina's face unconsciously took up one of the devil Ichigo became very scared. "Ramen's good, we can have ramen" Ichigo said rapidly while nodding his head. This woman was even scarier than Unohana.

"It's so nice of you to say that Ichigo" Kushina said with a sickly sweet voice "ramen just so happens to be my favourite too, and because of your choice I don't have to go shopping today."

"_So there was more than one reason"_ Ichigo thought still horrified about the way his mother was acting towards him and how fast her attitude could change.

FLASH BACK END

* * *

"_Yeah, yeah, I'll try to stop scowling"_ Ichigo replied to his hollow "_but I think that's gonna be pretty hard to do"_

_"I guess so, you already have been scowling for one lifetime"_ the hollow said.

_"That barely counts it was only seventeen years, I died way before my time was up"_ Ichigo said back all of a sudden wondering how his friends and family took his death.

_"Don't think about it king, they wouldn't want you holding yourself back because of them"_ the hollow said sensing where Ichigo's thoughts were going.

_"Yeah…you're right, I'll do that, I'd just worry them even more if that happened"_ Ichigo said to himself.

"…igo, Ichigo" Naruto shouted finally gaining his brother's attention "finally," Naruto sighed "you kinda blanked out for a moment there, come on, we're at the academy"

_"Great"_ Ichigo thought and sighed. Minimum year requirement at the academy was four years due to recent changes in the curriculum at Konoha, no matter how skilled you were, you had to at least attend four years worth at the academy, that meant that by the time this was over he'd be ten. However that wasn't the only rule that had been changed apparently, to become a Chunin you had to do the Chunin exams and could no longer get field promotions. The maximum amount of years you could attend the academy was six years otherwise anyone could enter the academy for as long as they liked ad they would probably end up getting themselves killed eventually.

* * *

(Ninja academy)

"Good morning class" a man said at the front of the room. He was a fairly tall man with dark skin and a scar across his forehead (at least I think he does). The room didn't go quiet. "I said" the man said eye twitching "good morning class!" the man shouted.

"Hi/good morning/what's up Iruka-sensei" the class replied all facing him now smiles present on their faces.

"How I bother to keep coming to teach you, I have no idea," Iruka said to himself "alright we have a new student today" Iruka said causing whispering to break out through the class and a very big grin to grow on Naruto's face causing multiple children to turn their heads to him demanding an answer before Iruka said so himself. "In you come now" Iruka said causing the door to be opened by someone.

Into the room walked an orange haired boy with a scary looking scowl on his face. "Hello everyone, my name's Ichigo Uzumaki Namikaze," Ichigo said with a huge smile "now if I see any of you or your parents calling my brother a demon again…I'll kill you" Ichigo said narrowing his eyes, losing the smile and giving everyone a serious look making everyone go wide-eyed.

"_Heh…this'll shut them up for a while"_ Iruka thought only to be sadly disappointed when they all started asking questions. "Shut up" Iruka shouted "ask questions later, now on with the class, Ichigo you can sit next to Shikamaru, try keep him awake for me"

"_Not quiet the result I expected"_ Ichigo thought as he wandered to his place next to Shikamaru.

"_There's no way that guy can be Naruto's brother he's way too scary"_ Sasuke thought looking at Ichigo from his place in the back corner of the room.

* * *

(Home)

"How was academy Ichigo, Naruto?" Kushina asked them as they came through the front door.

"Hey are you gonna start saying Ichigo's name first all the time?" Naruto whined.

"I can if you want me to" Kushina said making Naruto's shoulders sag in defeat before perking up again and launching into a conversation with Kushina saying that he was the best at the entire academy and that he would surely graduate in the minimum requirement time.

"Are you sure about that Naruto?" Ichigo said "As far as I am aware you are the only one to miss the target three times in a row and somehow manage to pin Iruka-sensei with a kunai to the tree he was standing next to"

"Yeah well I was holding back so I wouldn't scare off all the other kids like you did" Naruto said, and pretty soon began arguing with Ichigo over who was the better ninja.

* * *

(Four years later random classroom)

Ichigo had finally finished ninja academy and Naruto was stuck in it for another two years. "_Hehe, sucker"_ Ichigo thought as he waited for his Jonin instructor.

Ichigo would be getting a private instructor simply because the Hokage believed he was well beyond the other students in capability levels which was true although some students did complain that he was the only one to get the private instructor cough cough Sasuke. He was even above all the other recent graduates as well as the fact that there wasn't a placement available among the other graduates teams. In truth Ichigo didn't care, he was very happy that he didn't have to go with anyone else, although if he did want to become a Chunin he would have to fill in for an either sick or injured team mate from another team or squad as the others liked to call them because it sounded cooler than team.

"How are you going brat" a feminine voice sounded from behind Ichigo.

He didn't have to turn around to tell who it was, the person was always at the dango store after all and they reeked dango as well, in fact Ichigo could smell them right now as though she was eating them while climbing in through the window. "You really could use the door you know Anko" Ichigo said with out turning his head or opening an eye from his seated position in the empty classroom.

_"Hehe, big chested sensei"_ Ichigo's hollow spoke up.

"That's Anko-sensei to me brat" Anko said swallowing more dango finishing off all that she had with her.

"_Just like Toshiro in that sense"_ Ichigo thought while remembering all the times Toshiro had told him to call him Hitsugaia-Taicho. "Yeah yeah whatever Anko, you didn't bring any dango for me" Ichigo feigned being hurt "you could have at least thought about me when you bought your dango"

"Huh…what dango?" Anko said throwing the dango sticks out the window "I wasn't eating dango, I was thinking of how I should train you on my way over while eating a healthy breakfast"

"Sure you were, I can smell the dango you ate from here" Ichigo said making Anko try and smell her own breath to check if it really did smell like dango.

"You've got a good nose, you wouldn't happen to be from the Inuzuka clan would you? 'Cause you sure don't look llike it" Anko said afraid that he would be able to tell where she had been and what she was doing just by scent "I really need to wash" Anko whispered not knowing that Ichigo would also hear that, but thankfully kept his mouth shut to avoid Anko's wrath.

"No, I'm not from the Inuzuka clan" Ichigo said confused at the question she asked him, did she read his file or not.

Ichigo had heard many things about Anko from the other ninja around Konoha and learnt that she can be scary when she wants to but most of the time acts with a casual, rude or brash attitude. He didn't believe all the stories that went around with Anko, in fact he was amazed that she was still as happy as she was with all the things people said about her, she was supposed to have been Orochimaru's apprentice at one point when she was a ninja in training.

"Ok, meet me up on the roof in five, you've gotta tell me what you're good at, what you like doing so we can improve your skills appropriately and maybe a little about yourself…and your name, I forgot to read your name on the file" Anko said making Ichigo face palm at the last part, obviously she hadn't read his file. After that Anko jumped back out the window and ran off somewhere, presumably to get more dango.

Ichigo shrugged his shoulders deciding that she wasn't that bad at first so he thought he to would make a quick visit to someplace, for him it was home. When Ichigo arrived home he walked inside and decided to raid the cupboard swinging both doors wide and almost stepping inside but not before it slammed shut taking some skin off the front of his nose. Ichigo turned and froze to see his mother there. "Hey…what's up?" Ichigo said nervously.

"Shouldn't you be meeting your new sensei Ichigo" Kushina said clearly surprised that Ichigo was at home.

"Yeah, I already have, she said on the roof in five and it's only been about two so I thought I'd come home for a sec find something entertaining to do or get something to eat while Anko went to eat more dango" Ichigo said causing a look of surprise to grow on Kushina's face.

"You have…Anko? As your new sensei" Kushina questioned the authenticity of Ichigo's excuse not sure whether or not Sarutobi had really given Ichigo to Anko to play around with. Ichigo just nodded for his answer. "Be careful around her" Kushina warned "you have no idea what crazy idea she might come up with next, she was once a proctor for a Chunin exam and made some of the participants piss their pants from what I was told, all because she did something really stupid"

Ichigo sweated a bit at this and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah I'll make sure…well look at the time, I better get going now, see ya" Ichigo said vanishing in front of Kushina's eyes.

"Hey we still have another minute" Kushina called out but to no avail as the call went unanswered. "Ahh" Kushina groaned "he better not do everything she says" she said dreading the outcome of having Anko as a sensei.

* * *

(Ninja academy rooftop)

"Your late" Anko said as she landed on the roof.

"No I'm pretty sure I came on time" Ichigo said "your just trying to think that I was the late one and not yourself, just like Kakashi"

"Don't compare me to that idiot!" Anko yelled.

"Yeah well, at least he doesn't eat dango for breakfast, lunch and dinner" Ichigo replied from his place on the rooftop.

"Yeah yeah don't criticize me for my eating habbits, I'll have you know that dango is much better than everyone else makes it out to be" Anko said, defiance in her voice. "Anyway enough about dango, what are you good at? Do you have any hobbies, aspirations that I should be aware of? What do you need help in?" Anko said "Anything that else you want to say as well, and then we'll finish up for today cause I gotta recheck your file"

Ichigo just sighed before speaking "I'm a master of kenjutsu, mid level in ninjutsu, low genjutsu, high taijutsu, as well as mid level fuinjutsu" Ichigo said listing off a couple of things.

"Wow…you don't think you could teach me a couple of things then do you?" Anko asked only getting a shrug of the shoulders in reply, "anyway, please do continue"

"I also have several abilities that I think no one else has, sooo that would make it a new blood line limit…yes?" Ichigo said making it sound more like a question then a statement.

"What would these new abilities of yours contain then?" Anko asked interested in what he had to say or show.

"This" Ichigo said pulling a mask out of thin air that seemed to suddenly increase Ichigo's chakra output tenfold and rise his killing intent to the point where most would be falling over from their inability to breath, even Anko had to admit that this was beyond her expectations. "This might count as well" Ichigo said biting his thumb drawing blood and putting his hand against a tattoo on his left arm unsealing a sword and a combat knife which then caused cross like bands to appear on his forearms and chest.

"What's that?" Anko asked confused about when Ichigo unsealed the two weapons from the tattoo on his left shoulder.

"These two weapons were forged from a piece of my soul that split off and formed by themselves, so they are made completely from chakra and a piece of my soul" Ichigo explained.

"No that won't count as a blood line limit, well at least until you have children and they gain abilities similar to your own" Anko said "do you have anymore?" Anko questioned.

"I have chakra chains" Ichigo said casually noting the wide eye look he got from Anko.

"I know just the person who can train you to use the chakra chains" Anko said "we can get Kushina Uzumaki in to help you train with your chakra chains"

"Kushina's my mother" Ichigo said causing Anko's amazed expression to drop.

"No wonder you get all the good stuff then," Anko said with a huff crossing her arms "alright that's enough for today then, meet me by the forest of death training grounds by nine tomorrow morning we'll finish up what we started here tomorrow"

"Is it because you want more dango? You'll become overweight if you eat too much of that stuff you know" Ichigo said only to get bashed in the head by Anko's fist sending him skidding across the rooftop and into the distance.

"That'll teach that brat, me becoming overweight pfft," Anko said before looking over herself analytically. "I'm not really getting fat am I?" Anko questioned herself "Nah, I'll just be the awesome Sensei I am to that brat and cut back on the dango a little" Anko said. "_Why am I listening to him?"_ Anko thought, "_Uhh, I dunno, maybe because everyone else keeps saying the same thing to you"_ Anko started talking to herself, this was getting weird.

* * *

NOTES: the sword that Ichigo pulls out of the seal is just his fullbring sword slightly altered to be of closer resemblance to his new zangetsu in the manga. The combat knife is supposed to represent the second smaller blade in the manga. This is not the smaller version of zangetsu suited to smaller Ichigo's needs, Ichigo is simply too young to access his zanpakuto's power, so yes I will be introducing the new zangetsu into my story, it just won't be for a while because I want to see what Ichigo's new zanpakuto abilities are if he has any and his new bankai which hasn't been shown at this point in time or I clearly haven't seen the manga chapter with it yet if it is out.

I made it so there was a limit on the amount of years that one had to be in academy before they graduated because I Konoha had already put in the rule that there were no more field promotions being given out so I decided to make it so plus I wanted to stick Ichigo around Naruto's group of friends, this group includes all the teams that graduated plus Neji, Lee and Tenten's team. If you didn't remember they actually graduated a year before Naruto from the ninja academ so they aren't exactly friends yet.

Also to finish, he should be around high Chunin level now in terms of chakra and strength because of all the training that he did during his four years at academy, stamina and speed is something Ichigo is a natural at though so he is already well beyond Chunin in that aspect about mid jonin, can't have him too overpowered too early now can I (In ninja world of naruto it isn't uncommon to come across very young chunin or jonin level ninjas, take Kakashi for example I think he was supposed to be about eleven when he became a jonin, Itachi joined anbu at the same age and became a high ranked captain). Ichigo's growth rate will slow down to an almost absolute standstill in times where there are no enemies no matter how much he trains simply because he doesn't need to get stronger until an enemy who's stronger than him comes along much like in the bleach series where his strength only grows when faced by enemies that threaten to harm his family and friends or he himself is in serious danger or killed…just like his battle with Ulquiorra, probably the best fight in my opinion in the anime (I haven't watched the movies or any of the fillers this includes the bount arc which was just an anime only arc, it wasn't in the manga)


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey I'm home" Ichigo called out as he opened the door only to see Naruto standing there arms crossed, with a smirk on his face and the sound of two voices coming from the kitchen.

"Let's have a match again, I'm learning a new jutsu from pervy sage that even you haven't been taught yet" Naruto said with a smug tone to his voice.

"He's back again?" Ichigo asked getting a nod from Naruto. "So your learning a new jutsu from pervy sage huh," Ichigo said as he walked up to him moving in the direction his bedroom was in "well maybe, why don't you perfect learning that jutsu of yours add a couple of shadow clones and we'll call it an even fight, kay" Ichigo said as he slapped Naruto on the cheek lightly while passing him leaving Naruto standing there with an open mouth, looking incredulously at the space in front of him.

"_He just shoved me off and after all the training sessions and fights we've done together…he just shoved me off!"_ Naruto said inside his head. "Hey come back here I wanna fight you" Naruto said turning around to face Ichigo who was still walking towards his bedroom as though he didn't just hear Naruto talk to him.

In all truth and honesty Ichigo wasn't really listening to his brother Naruto he was listening to someone else, his other half. The hollow or shiro as Ichigo had finally decided on a name much to the hollows displeasure was spouting crap about many obscene things in Ichigo's mind and Ichigo had agreed to listen to him as though it was a problem that needed solving, not that his hollow thought so but agreed anyway since there was no one else to talk to within Ichigo's mind.

"Rasengan" Naruto shouted as he went to plow a highly unstable ball of chakra into his brothers back hoping to send him flying into the deepest reaches of the house where their mother was located before he sprinted out the door and ran for his dear life that he held so precious. However Naruto was disappointed went the chakra ball dissipated on it's collision course with Ichigo's back, making a small 'poof' sound when it finally met Ichigo's back, Naruto then promptly collapsed to the ground gasping and wheezing from all the chakra he just wasted trying to maintain it.

"Silly brother," Ichigo said making a 'tut tut' sound with his voice. "You've been practicing that all day haven't you," Ichigo said crouching down "plus your chakra control isn't that good yet so the chakra is constantly flowing out of it and it's not staying in the ball making you have to keep on pumping in your chakra into it, effectively wasting a whole lot of chakra" Ichigo finished walking off leaving Naruto on the ground at the front door with a sad look on his face as his stomach grumbled uncontrollably demanding food to replace all his wasted chakra.

Ichigo finally had been to his room and changed into a different set of clothes. When he exited his room he could see Naruto hopelessly trying to crawl into the kitchen on what was left of his strength and energy. Ichigo just stepped over him as though he didn't exist and continued on to the kitchen where he would gather himself some food and eat it in front of Naruto just for fun.

When Ichigo finally got to the Kitchen he spotted Jaraiya talking to his mother. "Oh hey Ichigo how's it going?" Jaraiya said noticing Ichigo enter the room "Did you talk to Naruto he seems pretty excited with the new Jutsu I'm teaching him"

"I'm fine pervy sage" Ichigo said getting Jaraiya to grow a tick above his eyebrow in annoyance and Kushina to just giggle slightly. "But I'm wondering why you are trying to teach Naruto such a dangerous jutsu, he hasn't even left the academy yet and you're already teaching him A-rank jutsu. Unfortunately I didn't really get to see what he did to perform the jutsu so I can't copy it yet" Ichigo said finishing off causing Kushina to glare at Jaraiya slightly from the corner of her eyes while she till remained facing Ichigo.

"Oh, I forgot about that," Jaraiya said clapping his hands together "you're like the next Kakashi aren't you only you don't have the sharingan in one of your eyes" Jaraiya said pointing at one of his eyes, remembering that he was called a copy ninja just like Kakashi due to the fact that he seems to understand most jutsu as soon as he sees them and can perform the jutsu almost straight after, taijutsu mainly though, ninjutsu was a bit harder. Sure it would take a couple of tries to perfect the technique he just saw, he wasn't an Uchiha, after all it would take at least some practice. "Yeah…hmm maybe you could learn it as well"

Ichigo just put up his hand to stop Jaraiya and said "As much as I would love to earn that jutsu I think Naruto wants to try and pummel me with it first so I'll just show him how clumsy he is when you just try to poke your hand out where the enemy can cut it off" Ichigo said making Jaraiya sweat a little at this and scratch the back of his head "it may be a powerful jutsu but unless he has the speed or reaction time to back it up he isn't going anywhere with that jutsu"

"Ahh come on don't make it sound like all the stuff I taught him was for nothing" Jaraiya said whining and dropping to his knees.

"Maybe you could teach him some genjutsu then" Ichigo said "well it was nice talking to ya but I'm going to torture Naruto now if you don't mind"

"No you won't Ichigo" Kushina said a dark aura overcoming her making both of the males in the room shiver. "You will help him get into the kitchen so he can feed himself, I'm tired of you always eating his lunch in front of him when he's tied to a tree, it certainly won't start inside the house"

"Yeah sure" Ichigo said sweating and went to fetch Naruto.

Once all were back in the kitchen Kushina asked Ichigo a question she'd been dying to ask. "So what was Anko like with you?"

"She wasn't as bad as you said she was, although she did punch me really hard when I said she should probably cut back on the dango" Ichigo said turning his face a little where everyone could see a large bruise forming causing them all to laugh a little.

"You don't do that Ichigo" Naruto said to him, "I ate one of her dango one time and she chased me around the village for an entire day"

"Well that's your fault" Ichigo replied not caring in the slightest for his brother's idiotic behavior.

With all that said and done all the occupants of the room talked for a bit longer before going to do their own thing for the rest of the day.

* * *

(Next day outside the forest of death)

Ichigo was sitting against the fence that sheltered the forest from trespassers and those that did not wish to die a painful or unfortunate death. It was quiet relaxing sitting there without anyone to bother him as he sat there looking at the rising sun in the distance. He had decided to get there early to take a quick look around inside the forest and wasn't that impressed, sure a couple of massive blood sucking leaches almost hit him but his quick reflexes and instincts prevented that from happening. The forest was probably only used to train ninja in survival skills while out alone without a food supply of some sort while fending off the natural predators of the wild life, most of which did not exist outside the forest, they were all very strange and had unique abilities.

The forest itself was dark and gloomy but there were a few openings where a river may have flowed and supported some marine life where the sun shined. The trees in the forest were all very tall with thick trunks and branches that seemed to reach out and touch the other trees or branches making it very easy to pass through the trees and not have to walk along the ground, a good thing for ninjas as they would normally pass through trees and not run along the ground to avoid any other people and obstacles that passed by. More commonly for points of advantage over enemies suggesting that the forest may also be a place for combat training as well.

"Hey brat," Anko said appearing in the clearing where Ichigo was seated "what are you doing here so early? Did you miss me?" Anko continued said a grin forming on her face.

"Hardly," Ichigo scoffed a little "I simply came here to enjoy the morning sunrise and avoid my brother this morning, he can be quite annoying when he chooses to be"

"Aww, Ichigo got annoyed by his mean brother" Anko said making a face which then vanished realizing something "come to think of it he still hasn't paid me for the dango he ate"

"_Naruto just talked about that yesterday…was she listening"_ Ichigo said to himself. "Ahh well all's done and passed what are we going to do today for training" Ichigo said attempting to drag Anko out of her thoughts and back into the world of the living.

It worked as Anko turned her head back to him. "Well since I read your file, we can skip out on finishing what we were doing yesterday, unless you think that's important, and do you?" Anko asked Ichigo just getting a shake of the head in response. "Well then since you said you suck at genjutsu we'll begin with that"

"Hey! I didn't say that I sucked!" Ichigo yelled clearly annoyed at what she said to him.

"Shh, I'm talking brat" Anko said not hearing Ichigo mumble something under his breath. "Genjutsu is really important in the repertoire of a ninja, you can run rings around your opponents without them noticing or you can induce a jutsu that traps them in their mind in a world you created making them completely oblivious to the world around them, some people who are were skilled enough to pull that off say that a lot more time passes within the persons mind than the real world and that fatigue in there can also pass on to their body. However to achieve such a level one must be a master at genjutsu from the basics upward, and even then, those genjutsu users tend to devote their entire lives to mastering that one aspect leading themselves to a possibly short lived life" Anko said.

"_This genjutsu stuff sure sounds a lot like Aizen's zanpakuto abilities"_ Ichigo thought "_having abilities like his would be really useful"_

"The only constant producers of that kind of skill level was the Uchiha clan, which no longer exists except for a lone survivor, however that was only because of a special doujutsu they possessed called the sharingan that allowed them to advance their ninja skills far more rapidly than the average ninja" Anko said pausing to take a deep breath. "Enough explanations now, do you know how to break out of a simple genjutsu?"

"Not really" Ichigo said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly "all the times that I've been stuck in a genjutsu I used my instincts to tell where the other person was and attacked even if I couldn't see them"

"Impressive" Anko said rubbing her chin in thought "but not good enough, some genjutsu are meant to paralyse the opponent, you won't be able to move if that happens, jeez what do they teach at the academy these days" Anko whispered the last part to herself in slight irritation. "Ok then, to start off with you will learn how to free yourself from genjutsu which is quite simple really, all you have to do is screw up the flow of chakra within your body momentarily to release the enemies grip on your chakra flow, that is what causes the enemy to be able to alter your senses and gain control of them"

"Ok…so when do we start" Ichigo said looking at Anko who was sitting on the ground in front of him while her lengthy explanation took place.

"Now" Anko said flashing through some hand signs before a dark veil of an abyss surrounded them both blocking their sense of sight. "First of all I want you to break out of this, it's a powered down version of a high level genjutsu, I myself am not that great at many genjutsu but this is just one I've managed to put down for the sake of making missions easier, it's amazing how many other shinobi depend on their sight almost entirely and quite funny as well" Anko said letting out a small laugh probably remembering a time she used the genjutsu on an enemy ninja.

"I can still see you" Ichigo said, "_the fullbring training did really stay with me, I can see everything, well not in clear detail but enough to tell where everything is and by the looks of it determine who's chakra signature is who's"_

"Yeah I kinda guessed that when your eyes began to glow a weird silver-blue, could you stop it?" Anko asked, "And have you really fought by instinct before when a genjutsu was cast on you?"

"Yeah I think I can stop it" Ichigo said. "_Hey shiro can you stop it for a moment_" Ichigo spoke to his hollow. "Yes I did fight by instinct except my vision of the world around me hadn't disappeared, it was just a minor tweak to prevent me from seeing the enemy, not everything"

_"Yeah I can stop it but only for now, it seems to be just a natural thing that occurs, kinda like night vision"_ Shiro said, _"you should be able to control it in the future just by shutting off or limiting chakra flow to your eyes, also overtime if you use that frequently enough it may improve or level up. Hopefully enough to see through chicks clothing hehe"_ Shiro laughed at the end due to his perverted thoughts carrying him away.

_"Yeah well it's not like I'll use it much anyway, I just aim and shoot"_ Ichigo said to himself.

"Hmm, ahh, it's stopped now Ichigo, continue with the genjutsu training" Anko said. "_Weird, he didn't even know about that ability until I told him his eyes were glowing and he saw through the abyss. It could be a new doujutsu however unlikely seeing as though other ninja have been known to train their eye's to be able to see through genjutsu just like sharingan, but just maybe the right genes were passed down from the Uzumaki clan and now we have a bastardised version of the Rinnegan. Heh, what a useless piece of crap, it probably only provides extra sensory abilities like byakugan. Anyway I'm gonna have some fun"_

"_So all I have to do…"_ Ichigo stopped his thoughts as he felt something press up against his forehead, it felt wet, was it a…tongue? "Hey get off me" Ichigo flailed about trying to hit Anko. "_That was creepy"_ Ichigo thought when Anko finally backed off and left him to break out of the genjutsu "_right, so all I have to do is move the chakra in my body around violently and the genjutsu should come off"_ Ichigo said to himself. It took a few tries but the abyss was lifted and Ichigo could see clearly again.

The sun was now high up in the sky and it was around ten-thirty and Anko was sleeping with her arms splayed out on the grass beside her. _"Heh, lazy"_ Ichigo thought but then again she had just bee waiting for Ichigo to release the genjutsu for what all of thirty minutes, that was lazy. "Hey Anko wake up, I'm done" Ichigo said waking up Anko by lightly nudging her side with his foot.

"_Huh…what, oh damn, he did get out after all, that Jutsu should have been enough to stop at least a Genin from breaking free of it, it would of taken all their concentration and energy to dispel it"_ Anko thought as she sat up. "You weren't supposed to break free of that so soon, I'd planned to sleep the rest of the day" Anko told Ichigo in disappointment "you see I haven't been sleeping the best recently." "_Could Orochimaru be close by, no that's ridiculous"_ Anko thought. "Alright then, the same principle applies to when on water or on a cliff face or even in the midst of battle however harder it is to maintain a steady flow of chakra to your feet when on water slash cliff face. And now onto casting genjutsu…"

And so the lesson continued for the rest of the day and all Ichigo really got from it was how to cast a mid-level genjutsu and how to escape a genjutsu.

* * *

Ichigo and Anko hadn't done much after the genjutsu training. All they had done was learn a few ways that you could apply genjutsu on someone through learning various hand-signs or just by looking the enemy in the eyes which sounded more like a doujutsu technique than a technique that a regular ninja could perform which was true. This method was simply trying to install fear into the enemy, which effectively lowered their defences, and a skilled chakra manipulator would be able to control their chakra in such a way that it cast an illusion of their fears around them.

It was safe to say that all Ichigo had to do now was work hard and practice in his own time and master the techniques he learned about and if he wanted to get more skilled in the subject he would have to ask someone else for help.

Next time though he would be learning about chakra natures and what not. He already did know about one of his chakra natures and was curious to find out if he had more. Anko also said she would bring him into the interrogation department to meet Ibiki and what they did at the ID. Life sure was interesting at the moment.


	6. Chapter 6

(A few months later Training grounds)

Naruto over the months had grown stronger much to the pleasure of Ichigo as he was starting to respect his brother a bit more even if it had taken him a while to make the kid see the world in a broader view. Naruto's usual childish ways were beginning to thin out as his maturity progressed along further. The reason Ichigo was trying to do this was because the maturity level he had was that of someone who was a teenager and he would tend to spend time around those who were older than him which in Kushina's opinion wasn't good for him and he needed to spend more time with people his age, if only she knew he was much older than she realized.

Naruto to the surprise of Ichigo had begun to grow more alert to the traps he set up for his brother every morning; Isshin's old methods did work after all. To most this would be seen as being a cruel brother, but in Ichigo's eyes he just didn't want to see a family member die when he wasn't there to protect them.

"Alright Naruto let's see what you've got now" Ichigo said getting into a crouching position while holding his larger blade in his right hand his left in the form of the ram sign to help focus his chakra around his body.

"You bet I'm gonna win this time" Naruto replied getting into his own stance, one that he'd developed for himself that was more accustomed to being able to attack an enemy with one of his signature Jutsus now.

"Say, Naruto before we begin have you learnt about chakra natures yet from either Pervy sage or Kaa-san?" Ichigo asked wondering whether or not he should use some of his own elemental Jutsu.

"Yeah a little, I did the paper test and it split right down the middle, turns out I've got wind type chakra, whatever that's supposed to mean" Naruto said shrugging his shoulders "after that they told me to split a leaf in half just by holding both my hands on either side of it while focusing my chakra, it was really hard"

"So can you use a wind Jutsu?" Ichigo asked trying to get an answer on whether or not his brother could use a wind based jutsu that had at least some form. It would be unfair if Ichigo went against him and used all three of his chakra natures, they were water, lightening and wind.

"Does gale palm count?" Naruto asked having learnt one of the more basic Jutsus that consisted of wind chakra. All it required was for him to focus and then release wind chakra out from his palms or fists. Ichigo just nodded in response. "Alright then Ichigo let's begin" Naruto said and both dashed at each other at high speeds.

Naruto had to admit that his speed wouldn't be anywhere near it was if Ichigo hadn't played all those relentless games of tag, although once or twice Ichigo had slipped up and muttered someone's name to himself looking as though he was remembering going through the exact same training. Naruto wondered who this was but he didn't ask thinking that his brother probably wouldn't tell him anyway.

As both contestants neared each other Ichigo's sword reared back and took a slash at Naruto's midsection hoping to just lightly cut through Naruto's clothing only but then was immediately surprised when Naruto somehow changed the use of his wind Jutsu technique to push himself under the blade as he still got closer to Ichigo. Naruto then shoved his palm into Ichigo's chest and shouted "Gale palm" and Ichigo was blown sky high, although imagine to his surprise when Ichigo didn't come back down.

"Hey what are you doing?" Naruto shouted shock evident on his face as he stood back up and looked into the sky where Ichigo seemed to stand in mid-air.

"It's a special technique I developed myself" Ichigo said to Naruto. _"Well not really, this technique just comes from another dimension"_ Ichigo thought to himself. "Do you have chakra chains like Kaa-san and myself?" Ichigo asked Naruto.

"Does that flying technique have to do with them?" Naruto asked Ichigo receiving a shake of the head in reply "well I can use chakra chains, just not that very well" Naruto said scratching the back of his head

"Well then try to use them and fling them out to catch me and bring me back to ground level, go on" Ichigo said intent on increasing his brothers chakra control as it had use to be as bad as his was when he first learnt about being a soul reaper and that those with large amounts of reiryoku tended to be very powerful although if you didn't start at a low level of reiryoku it could in fact be very hard to control your power and you might never be that great at it.

Ichigo looked at Naruto as he began to form a rather flimsy looking chain in the air in front of him brow furrowed as he tried to concentrate more on making the chain stronger. It took about a minute before Naruto was finally ready to launch his chain at Ichigo, who in the meanwhile was trying to focus on meditating, perfecting a sensory technique his hollow had taught him. It was called pesquisa, a very good technique for accurately locating and gauging his opponent's strength and by what Ichigo could tell from assessing his brother Naruto was that there was something hidden deep inside him, possibly sealed away. Other than that Naruto's own chakra level was already at that of a Chunin and could probably really graduate by the end of the year and miss out on his sixth year at the academy depending on how his test results went.

When Naruto launched his chain it flew towards Ichigo who then grabbed onto it before yanking on it bringing Naruto into the air with him. Ichigo then dropped to the ground and started flashing through some hand signs for a jutsu "Water release: water whip" Ichigo said quietly before water formed in the air in front of him. Ichigo made a grabbing motion at one end of the water flow and lashed out at Naruto who put up his arms in defense immediately being flung into the ground because of the amount of force Ichigo put behind it.

Naruto quickly stood back up from the ground and dusted himself off casually as though he hadn't just been hit and quickly started running towards his brother again performing a "Shadow clone Jutsu" while approaching him and began forming a spinning ball of Chakra in his palm much to Ichigo's surprise at seeing it rather than feeling it in his back this time. However Naruto's chakra control was still a bit off and it was leaking small amounts of chakra so it wouldn't be quite as powerful as a complete one.

Ichigo stood there looking as calm as ever and coated his right hand in a green like substance that was his manifestation light and put it in front of him intent on catching the ball of spinning chakra. When Naruto reached Ichigo he swung his arm forwards thinking that his brother was being stupid and wouldn't care for such a weak attack. Ichigo caught the rasengan in his hand and gripped onto it making it explode and backfire onto Naruto.

Naruto groaned as he tried to stand back on his feet, his skin was lightly burnt from where the high concentration of chakra had hit him although it was mainly on his hand which was rendered almost useless as it was sure to have a few broken bones in it if not entirely.

"I used the same technique to stand on the air so don't worry too much" Ichigo stated, "your chakra control and sensing skills have to be extremely high to be able to use it. I think that's enough, I think you might have given me some heavy bruising with that wind palm of yours" Ichigo chuckled a little. "Come on let's see if we can get that hand of yours healed"

* * *

(Streets of Konoha: After getting Naruto's hand healed)

"So Ichigo, now you have a team are you going to participate in this years Chunin exams?" Naruto asked Ichigo as they walked away from the hospital where Naruto got his hand healed.

Ichigo had his hands behind his head and looked over at Naruto before answering "Nah, probably not, the others have still gotta learn a bit before they feel confident enough to go in besides if you pass academy in the next month during for Genin exams you might be able to make it for next years ones for both of us to go in at the same time, that way we'll become Chunin at the same time"

"True I could pass this year…you think I should try?" Naruto said after pondering the though for a moment then looking over to Ichigo waiting for a response.

"Sure, but since you're the 'dead last' applying for graduation exams, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other students didn't want to run the risk of being beaten by you and applied as well especially since your grades started rising" Ichigo said with a small smile on his face.

"Hmph…yeah, Sasuke wouldn't want to get beaten by me now would he" Naruto said and then had a dreaded look on his face "but then all his fangirls will be taking it as well which will then put pressure on the other students to finish as well meaning that I'll be encouraging the entire year to try and graduate, ahhhh, what am I gonna do with all that pressure?" Naruto whined, his mind thinking of all the possibilities that would put more pressure on himself.

Ichigo just looked at his brother awkwardly before trying to reassure him that he would do fine and that there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately his brother calmed down and said that he would take the exams.

* * *

(Uzumaki house late afternoon one month later)

"Ichigo" Naruto yelled as he entered the house "everyone really did go in the exams…although Mizuki-sensei was acting a little suspicious" Naruto suddenly thought going off track. "But I think I passed"

"What, you did regular shadow clone did you?" Ichigo called back doubting that his brother would actually be able to pull one of the regular shadow clone Jutsus off correctly without pumping it full of too much chakra.

"Nah, Iruka –sensei let me do the one Kaa-san taught us" Naruto said now coming face to face with his brother Ichigo as he sat on a lounge reading a book. "Hey what are you reading? Hey aren't those the same books that Kakashi reads?" Naruto almost shouted pointing an accusing finger at the book held within Ichigo's grasp.

Ichigo quickly hid the book in his pocket _"Damn perverted hollow's rubbing off on me"_ Ichigo thought as he held his hands up and shook his head trying to act as though nothing were wrong with what he was doing. "Haha…well…you see, pervy sage wanted me to read his book for him to make sure it was good enough for him to publish it" Ichigo said pushing the blame onto their perverted godfather.

Thankfully Naruto bought the lie and slammed his hands together saying "of course." "But yeah Ichigo the results were marked before we even left the school this afternoon" Naruto said thinking about how vigorously the teachers were marking the results in hope that there would be an entire missing year from the academy that they wouldn't have to teach. "Aaaand I passed," Naruto said holding his fingers out in front of him in a peace sign.

"Oh yeah and by how much?" Ichigo asked causing Naruto to shift slightly on his feet slightly smiling sheepishly.

"Barely" Naruto said causing Ichigo to face palm "I got heaps right in the practical it was all the theory that brought me down" Naruto whined.

"Yeah whatever, that means you'll be in a team with Sasuke then" Ichigo said causing Naruto's face to amount to some form of horror. "Don't worry now the team that you'll be training with will constantly have someone to keep you on your toes now" Ichigo tried cheering up Naruto "now could you leave I have a book to finish before Kaa-san comes home" Ichigo said trying to sound as polite as possible. Secretly in the back of his mind somewhere he was beginning to enjoy the book but he wouldn't say that yet, his gentlemanly attitude made him refuse to accept it, and it was all thanks to his hollow.

* * *

Sorry about the flames I thought I had removed that, obviously not. By the way manifestation light is just the true name for light bringer.


	7. Chapter 7

I ended up reading through the story myself a couple of times and decided that I don't really like how it's turned out so far so I'm going to change it a little and rewrite probably most if not all of the chapters to simply make it a better read and explain a few things here and there that I missed. Story line will be the same for the most part and I'll be leaving all the current chapters up until I've at least written 5 or 6 chapters for this.


End file.
